A surfboard for my girl. Documentation

General Discussion
1

Firstly some words about myself.

My name is Kilian Green, I was born and raised in Munich (Germany) and started shaping three years ago.

I’m a student of mechatronics at the Augsburg University of applied science and will graduate in one years time.

Basically it was my dads idea to build the first surfboard. He was (and still is) a total beginner and since the 8’9 Bic ‘Magnum’ he bought turned out to be too small he desperately wanted a bigger surfboard.

At this point I always get the question: “Why didn’t he just go and buy one?”

And here my mom comes into play with her simple statement: “You’re not buying a board AGAIN!!”

So here we are building surfboards in the south of Germany, hundreds of miles from the ocean - but only a half an hour ride away from the Alps. :slight_smile:

Well the first board was real trash as you can imagine. It was supposed to be a surf able paddleboard, turned out to be 25Kg light and cost us about 500€. - We should have bought one…

We’ve come a long way and two weeks ago I finished board no 7, a 6’5 Fish, which I already got to ride in Biarritz (France) last week. It’s light, fast and turny as it should and I’m really happy satisfied with how it turned out.

In this thread I’m now going too document the development of a 8’5 longboard I’m making for and together with my lovely girlfriend.

Last summer I took her surfing for first time and she’s stoked! Since she’s a total beginner and I don’t want her to get too frustrated were making a rather big board for her.

Were going to use Styrofoam I got from a construction sight at our university, a 9mm multiplex Stringer, epoxy, 1+2 layers of 6oz glass and prop ably a 1 + 2 fin setup.

Here’s a first idea:

http://www.hs-augsburg.de/…dine%208,6%207th.pdf

We’ve laid up the blank and glued it together using PU-Foam. - Not beautiful but it works!

Gluing up!

Cutting of the excess foam

He raw blank and the beauty

That’s it for now.

I’m going to try to post everytime we do something. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Cheers Kilian

2

To show you what I was talking about when I mentioned the “surfable paddleboard”

And thats my newest Board. 6’5 Twin Fish

Cheers Kilian

3

MARRY HER NOW!

4

If he doesnt, I will!

And Killian, I can ride anything but that paddleboard? I dont think so! Cool dude and good luck…

(send your girls number via pm…)

5

Looks like your girls board will be very nice

not very nice of you to put her in that hazmat suit

(I dont have any imagination left) …LOL

she is cute

6

Ein schönes madchen.

eine wunderbar surfboard.

7

Thanks guys!

yes, I really like her too! :wink:

Guess we will continue working on thursday.

So hang on!

Ceers Kilian

8

Servus Kilian!

great project. I am also into board #7, just two hours further north, in a basement in Nürnberg. I am excited for you, keep the pictures coming!

funny, i was also in Biarritz ten days ago, with my new 5,11 Fish… great swell, great weather, wasn’t it?

good luck, and if you need anything feel free to pm me or call 09114311622

alles gute,

KM

9

Hi Karl!

Yes, that swell was great ad I got the by far biggest waves of my life don ther.

And what’s best - On my homemade board!

I’m definitally going to keep this thread uptodate and since i tend to take billions of pictures of every board I make

there will be no shortage of pics to watch.

Thanks for the offer and your number - maybe we’ll find the time.

Cheers Kilian

PS: Let’s keep this thread in english so everyone can follow :slight_smile:

10

I’ll swap fora 7’0 wayne lynch

11

Hi Kilian,

Take care my friend! Don´t keep throwing meat in the sharks’ area!

Nice work for an individual who lives so far away from the ocean (That’s Swaylocks!). I suggest you to take a good vacation and try to visit some factories. If you come to Brazil, I’ll be here… (Sure, you can bring your girl, Ha!)

12

Ever surf the river in Munich?

13

the fish looks nice.

Good luck with your GF’s board, I keep saying I’ll make aboard for mine but I want her to get a bit better at surfing first, I think she’s only humouring me, but its important to have a woman that understands you.

looks like your having a lot of fun together, but be carfule My GF is very suportive, but she keeps coming in to the workshop and putting finger marks on my hot coats. If i see her coming I step out so the temptation isn’t there.

A friends GF dented a freshly shaped blank in the past I had to turn around and walk out the room.

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@woody:

Believe me, as soon as we get to a point where she can do real damage I’ll take the saw away from her :slight_smile:

I really enjoy her being so supportive and interested in shaping - big time! I’m going to let her do as much as possible, teaching her along the way.

I love the fact that now I’m doing my favourite pastime together with my girl.

@jeffshaper:

Thanks for the invitation, man! If I get the chance to got I will remember! By now I’m still a poor student, so you’re save :slight_smile:

When ever I go to France, which is about 2-3 times a year, I always plan on going to see some shapers. As it turns out I then spend most of the time in the water and then forget about it completely. - So, maybe next time…… :slight_smile:

@Tuna:

I actually wasn’t much of a river surfer up to now but a few days ago I checked it out and it looked like some fun. 4 Guys surfing, 40 passengers watching - so not exactly a private session.

The wave was about 2,5 feet high and 30 feet wide - not toooo great but still: It’s a wave in the hart of Munich.

Cheers guys!

Kilian

15

Hey Guys!

After taking a few day longer than we actually planed on we made it back to the base on Sunday afternoon.

Having glued the blank together and cleaned it up a bit, it was now time to put the stinger in. Since its kind of hard to get a “real” surfboard blank

in the middle of Bavaria we figured out a method to set up our own blanks, simply by cutting the block of Styrofoam along the midline and gluing

a preshaped stringer in by means of PU-foam. The stringer template was designed and printed using the ACUShaper and then transferred to a board

of “Multiplex” which is a king of very strong Plywood.

So here we go.

Nadine giving the block straight edges using tools she’d never heard of before.

[=1]

[ 2]Then, after cutting along the midline she roughed out the cutting edges using the “Sureform” - Guess she’ll see that thing again along the way… :-)[/]

[/]

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After the cut is all clean and straight it’s time for the stringer. We use ordinary PU-foam and spackle the gas out of it so there’s almost no gap

in between the Styrofoam and the stringer.

Finally the blank is pushed back together, put under pressure and left to dry over night.

[=1]

[ 2]So this is the point we stopped yesterday evening. Has anybody in this forum made his own blanks before? I would be interested[/]

in you opinions of what were doing here. My dad always talks about making a mould and blowing our own blanks using PU-cans like those seen before but I believe we can forget about that - would probably end up in a huge mess and a waist of lifetime.

I hope well be back in the basement on Friday for hotwireing, cutting the outline and if I’m lucky, maybe cutting the first rail bends.

Keep it real so far!

Kilian & Nadine

[/]

17

Love your use of recycled materials but how is the adhesive property of the PU foam?

Oh yeah, how are you gonna keep the hotwire cut straight with only the center stinger?

I need to figure out this printing from AKUSHAPER thing.

18

Hi Dude!

Thanks for loving it! :slight_smile:

I also apreciate using material that would have gone to waste on my boards. Nice thought to make something good of a bunch of trash.

Well, the PH-foam…

Have you ever had it on the hands or messed up your favorite shirt with it??? :slight_smile: Sticks like *****!

Its’s really great for gluing up the sytrofoam. it shapes well and cuts really easy with the hotwire.

Speaking of that,

For hotwireing I use two more wooden stringer templates that are screwed to the sides of the blank.

makes it realy easy!

cheers Kilian

19

Bad idea to hotwire the PU foam as it produces toxic fumes. Try a search on swaylocks for polyurethane and hotwire for details.

regards,

Håvard

20

Looks like the volume of PU is small compared to the EPS so if you ventilate and wear a organic vapor cartridge respirator you should be okay.